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First Photos and Video of Raspberry Pi Model A
coop0030 writes "The first photos and videos of the Model A production samples are now available. The Raspberry Pi Model A is the newest low-cost computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Compared to the popular Model B, the Model A forgoes the Ethernet Controller, has 256MB of RAM, and has a single USB port. A benefit of the missing Ethernet controller is that power consumption is reduced. This allowed them to reach their goals of a low-cost $25 computer. The release date is for sometime early in 2013."
I'd rather see a $45 Pi with more Ram etc.
It's 2012, 2013 in about 400 hours. ARMv6 and just one USB2.0 port, which isn't even working right. You have got to be kidding.
STFU already about Raspberry Pi, at least until the A model is actually available; everybody knows and nobody cares!
They should have waited until they could get the cost down with 512MB of RAM. Having used both the 256 and 512 Model B, I found that no amount of tweaking could make the 256 model run a web browser acceptably on a Linux desktop. Modern Linux desktops and browsers have gotten too bloated. LXDE is painfully slow, while KDE and gnome desktops are just downright unable. The 512 model has no such issue.
Judging from their forums, there's a significant number of people who think removing the Ethernet controller/USB hub chip is going to solve or at least substantially reduce the Raspberry Pi's problems with USB. It won't. Unfortunately, but predictably it doesn't look like the Foundation have done anything to correct this misconception. Isochronous transfers which audio interfaces, webcams etc. rely upon won't be affected much, if at all by this change, i.e. they will still be utterly broken. If you get one of these types of devices working at all with your Pi you should consider yourself lucky.
I ordered one from Newark last week, got it three? days later. It showed out of stock when I ordered.
It's the newer model with 512MB RAM and screw holes (whoever fucked that up in the first place... it's mind boggling)... but it's not made in the UK. Not sure what that's about, I thought they were supposed to be now.
I wanted to design a shield, but it appears there are no technical drawings of the thing. No drawing showing how far the mounting holes are from GPIO pin 1 and whatnot, just simple stuff like that. Guess I'll have to measure.
I'm not sure why I hopped on this circus anyway... What amateur night project can't release something that simple?
Sent from my PDP-11
Interesting. I saw a post just like yours when the Raspberry Pi was first announced. End result was demand was so high it was quite difficult to get. We'll see how it pans out this time.
Can we please get some photos of the Raspberry Pi in its natural environment; sitting unused, covered in dust on some hipster-geek's shelf?
...except it wasn't.
The goal was to stop the erosion in what is perceived to be "computer skills" and interest in computer science as computing in UK schools had become about "Office" and Consumer computing had become "electronics". In fact the cheap part is in response to computers being expensive and arcane. [from http://www.raspberrypi.org/about%5D
I personally am convinced that the costs involved in raising the costs slightly to increase "memory" not anything else is incredibly wise. I have used GNU/Linux on little memory and its not fun...and Android seems to have similar requirements.
It's the newer model with 512MB RAM and screw holes (whoever fucked that up in the first place... it's mind boggling)... but it's not made in the UK. Not sure what that's about, I thought they were supposed to be now.
Some of them are, some of them aren't. There have been multiple reports of the recently Chinese manufactured Pi's having questionable soldering and reliability problems. See here: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=22473 and http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=24571
Not so much a joke as a reality as is shown right here
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
If you have a PDP-11 why do you want a raspberry-pi?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I've been trying to reduce my power bill.
Sent from my PDP-11
And why would anyone choose this model over B, with twice the ram, Ethernet, and a second USB port for a measly 10$ savings?
I see that there are emulators around so maybe you could retain your software and retire the hardware (in the summer, anyway).
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Lower power requirements. A lot of embedded device people don't care about the RAM and the ethernet. Who'd like to drag a network cable in their little robot?
Because they:
1. Don't care much about that difference
and
2. Buy lots of them in which case it's a saving of not 10$ but 30% - and that's a lot.
Real life is overrated.
The real first-world problem is lack of imagination. I can imagine scenarios where people would want one, why can't anybody else? (apparently...)
eg. I might design/build an embedded gadget using my desktop Model B Pi but when I want to deploy it it won't need Ethernet, USB or ability to run 3 desktop apps simultaneously. Why should I pay $10 extra for things that will never be used? $10 her, $10 there, it adds up over time (or real fast if I want to deploy 100 of them...)
And that's a first-world scenario...!
No sig today...
I bought one and I'm sick and fucking tired of hearing about it. I don't want to hear one more fucking thing until ICS or later is running on it, personally, since that was the news that got me to buy one, and then they never released it, and Liz never adequately explained why.
Raspberry Pi serves as a reminder to the community as to why we still need electronics companies. Apparently, we are not yet capable of producing and delivering a product this complex without doing it badly, even with all the support you could ever hope for from the vendor.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
To those demanding 512MB, you're a treadmill consumer, not a real programmer.
raspberry pi is supposed to be like the C64/spectrum 8 bit era computers.
the reason these 8bit machines lasted 15+ years, is because programmers eventually learned to break the rules and extend the functionality of the systems far beyond the hardware designers ever conceived. I disagreed with the foundation extending the B model to 512MB as it sets it apart on an upgrade treadmill course, rather than a, develop badass low level code hacker attitude that prevailed on the 8bit demo scene and game industry.
look at late C64 titles like creatures 2, mayhem in monsterland (MIM was 68k long, the programmer found 4K of storage in the C64 ROM chips!)
(the legendary 'lick your finger' cheat code for creatures 2) Triads Red Storm demo, Nuvie FMV player and many other examples of good programmers striping the code back to the silicon, and creating something unexpected, inspirational and mind blowing.
The people here asking for 512MB are the the rich kids whose parents bought them NESes/SNESesand Genesises when they got bored waiting for tapes to load and only returned to computing in the pentium era. While those happy with 256MB are the kids who bought disk drives, compression utility carts and tore it up on C64s/Speccys/Amigas during these years.
plenty of people working on that port, you're just whining because open source volunteers aren't working to YOUR schedule? hint for you, don't buy hardware for software that isn't released yet.
plenty of people working on that port, you're just whining because open source volunteers aren't working to YOUR schedule?
No, I'm complaining. Whining is a matter of tone.
hint for you, don't buy hardware for software that isn't released yet.
Yes. That's what I said.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
That emulator is proprietary, but this one http://simh.trailing-edge.com/ isn't, and emulates a couple of dozen different minicomputers. Seems like a good candidate for porting to the RasPi.
No. Well...maybe. Actually, yes. It really just depends.
Why would anyone choose to use an ATTiny microcontroller over an ATMega with 4 times the ram, 8 times the I/O capability, multi port analogue to digital conversions, interfaces for UART, SPI, TWI etc, for a measly $1.50 savings?
There's much more to a device than cost. So far every application of a Raspberry Pi (despite what the makers showed with their lovely full Linux desktop displays) has NOT been a general purpose computer. Typically I've seen these used as a small embedded platform. In many cases the size of the PCB, weight (e.g. send these up in weather balloons), and power requirements (e.g. run it from solar and a small battery for a remote data monitoring station) may be the overriding factor.
The Raspberry Pi makers look to be trying to take away the market share from small ARM development boards.
That's still cost basis.
No mention of the fact that this unit is smaller, lighter, and uses less power too.
More interesting is a $15 Pi with lower HW specs : no audio; no serial (only 1 USB, like Model A); no HDMI (only VGA) or even no video. But also integrated wireless mesh, preferably a snapin daughtercard for either Bluetooth, Zigbee, or even WiFi.
The purpose of these devices is to bootstrap British youth Computer Science education. That education better focus on networked distributed computing, preferably wireless for mobile or just ubiquity. Only one of the machines on the network needs better specs, for human interface. The rest should interface to the many things we have to make smart.
I personally would buy thousands of those low spec devices each year. I'm sure there's a market for hundreds of millions, probably many billion of them. Though most of that market will probably be served by stickon, postage-stamp sized devices powered by ambient (heat, light, flexing) energy and cost under $1, we have to get there steadily. I don't know why Chinese exporters aren't selling Model A and Model B for under $20 already (they're $80+), and a $10- Model C stripped down from there.
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make install -not war
How does the developed world lack imagination? It's producing these devices, and generating the demand for them, and using them in the applications. Indeed most innovation comes from outside the third world. Yes, third worlders are busier just surviving, but the developed world is supplying plenty of imagination.
Your post was sent from the developed world, and shows plenty of imagination.
Now, I won't disagree that plenty of developed worlders are idiots without imagination. But they've outsourced it to people like us, which is how we address the problem. The species lacks sufficient imagination, but that's not really what we're talking about here. There's plenty of imagination to go around, though it would be better if there were more.
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make install -not war
You're right. Please send me your $36.50 ATMega version.
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make install -not war
I see raspberry pies running Debian linux just fine. buy one, plenty of useful software for it, don't need any android to get something useful done
The people here asking for 512MB are the the rich kids whose parents bought them ...
Nah.
They're the people who want to plug in an off-the-shelf distro and get the project done in a couple weeks.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
How does the developed world lack imagination?
Not the 'world', the people who always come on Slashdot posting about how if they don't want something it has no right to exist.
No sig today...
I'm just positing an example. I'm sure there's plenty more.
I don't think it's smaller though, it's the same PCB...
No sig today...
EVERYBODY wants more RAM. It's universal among software programmers. As an embedded person myself, let me just say: Give me RAM or give me death.
Why do i get the feeling you've missed the point...
Because you're not paying attention.
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make install -not war
I ordered one about 3 weeks ago from Newark and it arrived in a week. Their site said it was out of stock but I did get one. I suspect they have a revolving outage. Even if they didn't, its only $35. If that breaks the bank then you shouldn't be playing.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs